Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Wang Hsiang-ch'ien
WANG Hsiang-ch'ien 王象乾 (T. 子廓 and 霽宇), d. 1630, age 85 (sui), Ming official, was a member of the celebrated Wang family of Hsinch‘êng, Shantung, which produced, between the years 1562 and 1610, ten successful candidates for the chin-shih degree. Of eight sons and nineteen grandsons of one member of this family, named Wang Ch'ung-kuang 王重光 (chin-shih of 1541), almost all rose to positions of importance in the government. Wang Hsiang-ch'ien, one of these grandsons, received his chin-shih in 1571 and became magistrate at Wên-hsi, Shansi. Shortly thereafter he entered the Board of War and rose to be a department director. After a term as prefect at Paoting he was assigned in 1589 to the post of junior assistant to the lieutenant-governor of the frontier district of Hsüan-fu 宣府 where he achieved success in diplomatic negotiations with the Mongols. Becoming governor in 1594, he kept the border quiet for the following seven years. After the suppression of the rebellion of Yang Ying-lung 揚應龍 (executed January 29, 1601) in Szechwan, Wang was sent to that province to replace Li Hua-lung 李化龍 (T. 于田, 1554–1611) as commander of the military forces, but retired in 1605 after a disagreement over policy regarding the Miao aborigines of Keichow. In 1608 he was appointed commander of the forces in Liaotung and northeastern Chihli which were menaced by Mongol raids. Because of his successes he was promoted in 1612 to the presidency of the Board of War with the honorary title of Senior Guardian of the Heir Apparent.
He resigned in 1614 on account of illness and remained in retirement until 1621 when he was recalled at the age of seventy-six (sui) to head the Board of War and command the armies in Liaotung where the Manchus had recently captured the cities of Shên-yang and Liao-yang. In concert with Wang Tsai-chin [q. v.] he favored the creation of a Mongol buffer state outside Shanhaikuan, and proposed an annual expenditure of about a million taels in the form of doles to keep the Mongol tribes in order. Opposed in this policy by Sun Ch'êng-tsung, Yüan Ch'ung-huan [qq. v.] and others, Wang again resigned, remaining in retirement until 1628 when an invasion of northern Shansi by Lingdan Khan 林丹汗 of Chahar resulted in his recall to act as mediator. Unable to carry out his plan of conciliating the Mongols, owing, it is said, to the opposition of other officials, he finally retired in 1629 and died at home in the following year. He was honored with the posthumous title of Grand Preceptor.
[M.3/228/1a; MS Ming History in Library of Congress, 221/1a; Hsin-ch'êng hsien-chih (1933) 24/9a–37b; Tsinan fu-chih (1841) 51/19a.]
George A. Kennedy